This is the third time in six months for this to happen. The car is driving fine and suddenly it does not want to grab when trying to go into gear. The first time this happened the car was taken to a independent mechanic who replaced the clutch, only for it to fail another month later. We then took the car to a certified BMW shop who told us that the mechanic before did not put all the bolts on tight and or was missing bolts. They replaced the whole clutch kit, flywheel, release bearing ect. It has been about three months since then and last night out of no where the clutch just failed again.

I will put it in gear and it will slowly move forward and same with reverse but has no power at all when stepping on the gas. I dont understand what could be causing it to fail.

Its my girlfriends daily driver and she does not ride the clutch at all. She has always owned a manual tranny so i know that is not the case.

any tips for some troubleshooting?

 

What year and model?

 

When you say "no power when stepping on the gas".... you mean the car revs freely, but does not speedup, indicating a slipping clutch? Or something else?

 

Rereading the description, do you have any lights on your dash? Any odd sounds?
sounds more like the motor is in "limp mode"...when power is limited to very little, and rpms to about 2000-3000 max....

 

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tried making all posts into one and delete these three but cant seem to figure out how to delete..

 

2006 R50
It's not the S model

ZippyNH the car just revs up but does nothing. No lights on the dash but after listening for a sound i did hear a rattle coming from the tranny area. im going to check to see if its the throwout bearing. I'll do some reading on "limp mode". What is the cause of that?

also when i do try to accelerate i start to get that burning clutch smell as if it was stuck or something?

 

If you can smell burning clutch smell, no lights, tgen engine is ok...
With the car off, can you shift it ok?
Then with it on, what is the feel...can you slip it into gear, but not go?
Wonder if the master/slave cylinders failed, then you MAY have burnt it out reving it, trying to move it....
If you don't have the skills to fix it, you are just causing more $$$ messing with it, get it towed. Tye master/slave cylindar is just a hydrolic cylindar you pump with the clutch pedal that moves the actual clutch...they can/do fail, so they get air in them or fail to move fluid, resulting in no movent of the clutch, so no engagement......reving it letting it slip can result in a toasted clutch, resuling in a new one...and you can smell it.....

 

Non s 2006 has an improved getreg (over the failure prone midlands 5 speed), so the tranny itself should not be a worry unless seriouly abused...

 

yeah i havent been reving it horribly because i know what damages will go a long with it. I went to look at the CSC and was going to remove the boot but what i am looking at has no ruber boot on it. I was already planing on bleeding it today. I can shift fine with the car off and fine with it on. just no go

 

no signs of the slave or master cylder failing though. is it possible for it to all of a sudden crap out?

 

Pretty common on the mini....just a plastic sleeve with an o-ring....epic to bleed a,new one....shares the brake fluid resiviour.

 

yeah i have came to the conclusion that it has to be the slave cylnder. that was never replaced when they replaced the clutch. i am going to order a new one and see how that works out. I hear the rattle and it stops when i press in the clutch. hopefull its not the throwout bearing. i dont see why though because it is new

 

what is the differance in the two slave cylinders i see on ebay? one has the boot and the other is just solid plastic(the one on i have on mine)